Amayita (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} amayita) wrote,@ 2007-06-08 11:44:00 |
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Consumers Are Killing the Welfare State
Consumers Are Killing the Welfare State. Some excerpts, if you don’t want to read the whole thing:
The average shopper at Karstadt, Metro and Lidl is a downright globalization fanatic. He compares price and service and always goes for what’s cheapest. In doing so, he destroys massive numbers of jobs in Europe -- including, eventually, his own.
Nowadays, almost everything money can buy can be produced without the extra ingredient that we call the welfare state.
Indeed, 75 percent of the world’s population has no unemployment benefit. And while this may put workers at a disadvantage, it certainly provides a boost to their product sales. It is the workers alone -- and not the products they produce -- who must bear the risk of illness, poverty and aging. In the West, exactly the opposite is true.
Many who considered the social market economy to be the final stage of history are now being forced to admit they made a colossal error. Capitalism has, thanks to a global labor and finance market, increased its range, while the social safety net has lost ground. The market has gained power, speed and apparently also inevitability. But the social triumph of yesteryear has faded. Indeed, capitalism is going back to its roots.
Consumers Are Killing the Welfare State. Some excerpts, if you don’t want to read the whole thing:
The average shopper at Karstadt, Metro and Lidl is a downright globalization fanatic. He compares price and service and always goes for what’s cheapest. In doing so, he destroys massive numbers of jobs in Europe -- including, eventually, his own.
Nowadays, almost everything money can buy can be produced without the extra ingredient that we call the welfare state.
Indeed, 75 percent of the world’s population has no unemployment benefit. And while this may put workers at a disadvantage, it certainly provides a boost to their product sales. It is the workers alone -- and not the products they produce -- who must bear the risk of illness, poverty and aging. In the West, exactly the opposite is true.
Many who considered the social market economy to be the final stage of history are now being forced to admit they made a colossal error. Capitalism has, thanks to a global labor and finance market, increased its range, while the social safety net has lost ground. The market has gained power, speed and apparently also inevitability. But the social triumph of yesteryear has faded. Indeed, capitalism is going back to its roots.
